Barack Obama made pulling US troops out of Iraq a key selling point of his 2008 Presidential campaign. US troops pulled out of the troubled country in late 2011, leading most to believe that Obama had made good on this particular promise.

Hit fast-forward to the present. Obama is now pondering various military options to engage again in Iraq. Why? It is because a pro Al-Qaeda insurgency has captured two Iraqi cities and plans to press on ahead Baghdad.

Airstrikes are one option being considered, as well as increased flow of weaponry to the current Iraqi government. The US is already providing considerable military support to Iraq. In an Associated Press article on yahoo.com, the extent of US aid to the Iraqi government becomes clear:

Instead, the U.S. Embassy has sold small scout helicopters, tanks, guns, rockets and at least 300 Hellfire missiles to Iraqi forces. A U.S. shipment of ScanEagle surveillance drones is to be delivered to Iraq later this summer, and the State Department is trying to speed an order of Apache helicopters to Baghdad. Additionally, Congress is reviewing a $1 billion order of arms, including Humvee vehicles, to Iraq.

It’s not just the Democrats calling for action in Iraq. John McCain recently called for Obama’s entire national security team to resign, while John Boehner accused Obama of “taking a nap” while conditions in Iraq deteriorated.

Officials declared that American troops would not be put back on the ground in the country.

Obama faces some choices. Will he heed the many American people who are reluctant about increasing military involvement in Iraq more than ten years after the Iraq War started? Or will he attempt to stop the Islamists who want to make Iraq their country by force of arms? What do you think?